Service providers often provide their features, such as security and/or Internet Protocol (IP) telephony services, to users based on a licensing system. Licensing systems generally allow a user (i.e., a customer) to use or obtain a certain amount of a feature or service (i.e., a number of IP phones or a time frame of traffic filtering) by purchasing a certain number of licenses (i.e., four licenses equates to four IP phone lines). When a license is time-based, a user may be able to purchase a perpetual license that spans the life of a purchased product or a license that only lasts for a certain time period (i.e., one year). Regardless of how the lifespan of a license is defined, typically, a license is acquired and subsequently assigned to a specific computing device (or a predetermined number of computing devices). The license expires at the end of the predetermined license lifespan and the licensing process is renewed. In enterprise networks that have shifting needs and demands, these inflexible licensing systems are often expensive and inefficient.